Larkin & Lacey Frontera Fund

Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin are the faces behind the Larkin & Lacey Frontera Fund, a fund that concentrates on supporting organizations that benefit individuals struggling with immigration, human, and civil rights injustices. Their website is chock full of information pertaining to immigration news and recent events for the organizations that the fund is in support of.

From there, the fund grew into something great and it has helped many movements, primarily those that deal with immigration and human right issues in Arizona. The fund itself derives its name from “la línea fronteriza” which literally means the Mexican border.

That said, there are plenty of up to date news articles retelling of the difficulties that each group has been having to deal with in regards to the current struggles that immigrants have had from Mexico since Trump’s administration began making some major changes.

There is a bill that may pass which would allow the Mexican border patrol to bring on a lot more Border Patrol Agents with the goal of achieving quantity over quality. There is a quota that needs to be filled thanks to Trump’s executive level order mandate, which requires the border to hire on 5,000 more Border Patrol Agents and 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, officers.

Just like the last time the Border Patrol Agents were boosted in numbers, as well as ICE Officers, there was a large spike in corruption among the new hires. This is because quality is sacrificed in order to achieve a bulk amount of workers in a short time.

Some of the offences against the No More Deaths members have been slashing water bottles left at the border for migrants, as well as threatening the members with felony charges despite the existing peace agreement between the organization and the border patrol.

Lowering the hiring standards for Border Protection and Customs will likely only increase this abuse of power among the Border Patrol Agents and ICE Officers. One of the aspects of new recruits to the patrol is the lack of a required polygraph test to make sure they are mentally stable enough to perform their position adequately.

Since a polygraph test is currently a requirement, it helps to filter out the individuals who would not be the best mental fit for such a position of authority. Applicants who are asked questions during polygraph tests reveal some disturbing information that the test exists to help weed out. Without it, individuals with spotty history will slip through the cracks.